CH 103

Veronica was so strong that even though I was hanging on her forearm she still had managed to pull out a handful of Charlotte’s hair. 

“Sister, sister!”

“What?! Who the hell is this?”

“She’s a guest in Lagrange who comes from the South! She’s close to the emperor. For now, let go of her hair!” 

“No wonder, she’s rude. She’s a southerner?” 

Veronica groaned in an annoyed manner and flung Charlotte to the ground. 

“Kyaa! Ah, ahh.” 

She eventually fainted with her graceful hair scattered on the floor. 

“Charlotte!”

I didn’t think she would end up fainting, but it must have been the first humiliation she had ever experienced in her whole life. 

I held her in my arms and exhaled heavily. 

“She’s not d-dead, is she?”

“People don’t die with this much.” 

Veronica replied apathetically at the question I asked with a pale face. 

I met her shining dark pebble-like eyes and grunted as I dragged Charlotte to the sofa. 

“Sister.”

“Don’t get angry. She was mad at you.” 

Veronica scratched her cheek as if she was embarrassed that as soon as we met again she already caused a scene. 

There was no way I would get angry when she got pissed off for my sake. 

“I’m not angry at all.” 

I roughly tossed Charlotte to the sofa and walked over to Veronica, spreading my arms. She smiled broadly and hugged me. 

“Really?”

“Yeah. Sister, did you cut your hair?” 

I mumbled softly, stroking her thick blonde hair which had been cut short. The long, wavy hair had suited her, but what kind of hair would not suit this beauty? 

“Yeah. Is it weird? I had no choice because all my hair got frozen.”

“Not at all. It’s really pretty. It suits you.” 

When I said that while smiling broadly, Veronica blushed bashfully. I watched her light blue aura rippling beautifully and cast a glance on the sofa. 

Veronica noticed my gaze and immediately opened her mouth. 

“She’s a guest in Lagrange? A royal guest?” 

“Yeah.”

“That bastard Dietrich has finally gone crazy, huh. You call that thing a guest?”

“He didn’t have a choice. It was the emperor’s condition.”

“The emperor isn’t even a big deal.” 

Veronica ground her teeth insisting she’d go to the South and destroy everything herself. In order to calm her down, I hugged her from the neck. 

“Sister, I missed you.”

“...........”

“I really, really missed you. I was so scared that Veronica would melt before the restrictions were lifted.”

“Oh my, really?” 

Veronica, who was weakened by my whining, embraced me and swayed her body. I lifted my head, thinking that I was past the age of being coddled, but there wasn’t anyone around anyway, so I wanted to do it and I stayed still in her arms.  

“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.” 

Veronica smiled broadly and rubbed the tip of her nose on my forehead. I felt ticklish and exploded in laughter. 

“Should I throw her out?” 

Veronica, who had lowered me to the floor, nodded toward Charlotte who still hasn’t regained consciousness.

“And throw an unconscious person on the street?”

“Then, shall we nicely put the person who said your future was terrible in a bedroom or something?” 

Veronica asked, clicking her tongue. I really didn’t want to be kinder to Charlotte either, but building animosity with her was a different matter altogether.

She was a sort of safety net to me. Even if Dietrich lost the war, she was the only one who could save him. 

‘For now, I’ll try something that comes to my mind.’ 

The ostensible reason was that Euclid had the support of the imperial family.

However, I think the decisive reason behind it was Charlotte.

To be precise, the holy relics she placed on Hermann’s hands. 

‘I thought it was part of the typical growth process of the munchkin protagonist.’

Hermann, after suffering a big defeat from Dietrich during his boyhood, met with various opportunities to grow. The relics discovered through her helped him to unleash more powerful abilities. 

‘Maybe she came to save Dietrich due to that guilt?’ 

It wasn’t a novel that centered on romance, so there was no way to know.

I looked down at Charlotte’s round forehead and slipped the bracelet inside my pocket. 

────── 〔✿〕──────

“Baal.”

“Yes.”

“Look at this.” 

“Hic.”

When I shoved Charl’s bracelet in front of him, Baal turned pale and took a step back. 

“Hic!”

However, when a solid hawthorn tree touched his back, he freaked out some more and came forward again. 

“P-princess, are you finally going to purify me…!” 

Baal cried and wrapped his arms around his body. I laughed softly at the absurd remarks of the demon and shook my head. 

“No, that’s not it. I have something to ask you, that’s why.” 

“In front of me is a holy relic, behind me are purification trees, what the hell are you going to ask me by summoning me in such a place?” 

It’s true that I had taken out the holy relic on purpose, but I had forgotten that the garden was full of purification trees. 

I had mixed feelings as I looked at Baal’s pale gray face and the giant hawthorn trees. 

“Is it difficult for you to use your powers when there are purification trees?”

“It’s hard to breathe, let alone use my powers.” 

In suppressing the shadow demons, I had weakened Baal, who was the source of Dietrich’s powers. 

‘At this rate, he will definitely be at a disadvantage in the war.’ 

The other side would probably come out with a lot of holy relics that were similar to an ability amplifier. 

“But if I remove the purification trees, you’d all be looking for an opportunity to go after Dietrich.” 

“Will the hungry demons only go after His Majesty’s soul?”

I was disgusted by Baal’s question that I shoved the bracelet in front of him. 

‘Will they go after the triplets and me?’

“Then, are you saying they’ll also go after young children’s souls?”

“We have to eat to live, too, eek! Hic!”

When I slightly touched the holy aura leaking from the relic, the bracelet began to tremble.

And Baal cried out again. 

“Where did you pick that up? Isn’t that Hera’s relic!”

“I took it from the Saintess of Vallandia.”

“As expected of a Lagrange, well done. Truly well done.”

The demon sneered at me and giggle. Then, he shut his mouth afraid that I would shove the holy relic at him. 

“But are you supposed to use this relic as a weapon? Didn’t the sun god love peace?” 

So why did the sun god scatter weapons all over the world? Baal tilted his head at my question and touched the holy relic with the tip of his finger. 

“Don’t you think it doesn’t make sense?”

His finger which touched the lapis lazuli burned black in an instant. Seeing the power that was greater than my purification trees, I urgently hid the bracelet behind my back. 

On the other hand, Baal shrugged his shoulder as if it was nothing. 

“Moreover, do you think it’s Hera’s intention that humans use the relics as weapons? In the end, it’s up to humans.” 

‘Up to humans?’

I understood the hint from the demon and grabbed his arm. 

“Don’t we have something like this?”

“You destroyed it all, Princess.”

“What if not everything was destroyed? You all had intended to swallow us all, after all.” 

Baal opened his mouth wide asking how I knew that. I suddenly remembered a book I had seen in Josef’s lab and urgently turned my back. 

‘Eredia’s ability is inherently good.’

Because she’s a benevolent god. But just like holy relics could be used as weapons, her abilities didn’t have to be necessarily used for others.

I ran up the stairs one after another and quickly reached my study.

It wasn’t difficult to find the book I had noticed a dozen times because the sensible Lancel had moved the bookshelf from the lab as it was. 

‘If Charl can unlock the power confined in the holy relic –’

I could probably stain that power. 

‘Yes, this book says the same thing. There is a phrase that says objects have Eredia’s powers.’ 

I put on the earrings I bought at the Great Market and tightened my hold on the bracelet just like what I did when I cleaned the triplet’s necklaces.

‘Now I see. I was wondering why Charl, who was not even participating in the war, needed an ability amplifier.’ 

In reality, there were many incidents and accidents that happened without reason, but ‘The Men’s War of Roses’ was a novel. 

‘There was no scene where without justification an ability amplifier would come to Charl’s hands.’

After all, she was another opportunity for Hermann. There was no doubt she would have demonstrated similar abilities to mine. 

But it must have been easier for her because it’s the holy relic of the sun god than the crazy thing I’m about to do now. 

“What on earth are you trying to do?”

“Uwaah!”

“Excuse me? Is there a demon sleeping inside you, Princess?”

“What?” 

Baal, who had followed me, asked sarcastically. I snorted and rolled my eyes at the demon.

“Well, our Princess has already reached puberty –” 

“That’s not it!” 

Although they were not jewels that carry a disgusting aura, the deep rose scent was definitely proof of the muddy aura. 

‘This isn’t enough.’

Bracelets and necklaces were more like decorations that had no offensive power among holy objects.

Just trying to darken this small relic made me so exhausted that I wouldn’t be able to wake up for days, but the weapons that appeared with Hermann in ‘The Men’s War of Roses’ would consume even more energy.